Workday Wednesday - August 28th

The Workday Wednesday Crew is at it Again

It's amazing just how much maintenance is required each week to keep the railroad functional.

This week Bill & Doug continued with their efforts on the station destined for Bell.

Fred, Henk, Chris, Bernie & I conducted various maintenance tasks around the railroad.

It's an overcast Wednesday, but alas...no rain is falling!

Bill & Doug are making great progress on the new station destined for Bell.

Today the focus was on the 'hat' for the depot!

Lot's of "measuring twice & cutting once" is in order here!

The woodcutter himself - Billy Boy!

The 'overseer' - Master Doug!

Lovely lads!

Bill must hammer the nails in as the 'nailer' tool they were using only managed to punch the nails in a fraction of the way.

Great workmanship!

Nice!

Henk has inherited a new jacket seeing as it was a tad cool outside this morning.

Hey Henk, love that modeling pose!

A perfect fit - suits you just right!

Henk loves the colour pattern as well!

But alas...he cannot keep it - seeing as the jacket was inadvertently left by one of our operators at the last session.  It is safe and sound in the crew lounge under the canopy for whoever must claim it!

Henk's trusty tool on this day.

Perfect Henk...that's one 'mean machine' with a 'mean operator'!   Hey, I need a haircut and I think that tool will work wonders!

Heh heh...not likely I say as Henk chuckles to himself.

Without weekly maintenance, the weeds would cover the rails in no time - so Chris sees to it that that does not happen!

The white bucket is full in no time at all!

Chris is being watched very carefully by Forest Ranger Fred!

Speaking of Fred - he gets down and dirty too - cutting the piping for supports for three umbrellas.  The pipe length is 7'6" which divides into three equal segment of 2'6" perfectly!

Video of Freddie hard at work!

Chris and I are installing the first pipe at the location of Bell where we simply had an umbrella standing at attention for last week's operations with the aid of clamps only.

In order to hammer the pipe deep into the ground, Chris uses a section of wood...

...and I get to swing the mallet!!!  Watch out Chris!!!

Here is the umbrella that stood at attention in a 'Rube Goldberg' fashion last Saturday during our Narrow Gauge operations.

Here is the first of two other umbrellas we had recently purchased for the property from some of the funds gained from the sale of Lawrence's items.

Nice pattern, Bernie!

Chris stands at attention after we installed the support pipe for the 'shade provider'.

Bernie & Chris hold a brief discussion. 

You would think that with Fred's house providing shade from the east in the early morning hours and the tall hedge along the fence line of the property doing the same from the west later in the morning that umbrellas wouldn't be required here.

I ran the RP&M last Saturday and I soon learned that there is a window of nearly two hours where neither the house nor the hedge offered respite from the sun's rays down in Rat Portage.  It get's really hot down there - especially when the light tones of Fred's home reflects the sun's rays down on you!

As Bill calls it with so many umbrellas on the property - we are running trains in "Mary Poppinsville"!

The first umbrella you saw in the previous images shades the operators at the location where they stand for the greatest amount of time at that end of the yard in Rat Portage - the area where all the turnouts occur heading over to Comber Chairs, Golding Grains, the Team Track & the layover track leading to the turntable as well as the turnout separating the passing siding from the main.  

At the other end of Rat Portage, we decided to erect the second umbrella where many turnouts are located once again separating the passing siding from the main line and those leading into the Rat Portage Yard where operators spend the greatest amount of time switching nearby the tunnel entrance and the station. 

Before hammering the umbrella supports into place in the ground, we got the key and unlocked the storage shed to check on the clearance tolerances and we ensured we had a few inches of clearance to spare seeing as we wanted the umbrella to open as close to that end of Rat Portage as possible.

When we first opened the umbrella, the vines draped atop and rubbed against the fabric.  They are a nuisance and must be cleared!

Chris's efforts with the vines as captured forever on video tape!

Chris & Bernie are cutting the vines to go out in the recycling.

Great job laddies!

Much better!

Here is that little flag stop at Ferndale named after Gord Bellamy's wife, Fern who hails from the Lake of the Woods district of Ontario which is the location where Rat Portage (later Kenora) is found.

Fred had a couple of bungie cords left over.

They do the trick in keeping the umbrellas folded up between operating sessions.

Video of Rat Portage with the new umbrellas before Mike stumbles clumsily backwards!

Video at Rat Portage - Take Two!

Chris and I have spotted an 0-6-0 on the rails leading up to Rat Portage.  

Look closely - it's not an Annie - it's an ant!  

A number of them were crawling atop the rails at this location.

Video of RP&M ants wanting to join in on the operating fun!

Doug knew that Fred wanted the vans organized so that's what we did.

We pulled out a number of trays holding the cabeese and placed them all in a single 'van tray'.

These centre cupola vans are all wooden items that most definitely ran during the time period we replicate in our narrow gauge operations - but, as Doug mentioned to me - they would be equally at home in our standard gauge operations, lasting well into that time period too!

Yet another cool T-shirt tells me Scooby Doo, 'aka' Mr. Scobie must be in town!

Sure enough, he is!

When I arrived Fred's property, all the lads were outside busily attending to their various tasks when I spotted Father Fred indoors at his workbench.

He was busy working on cars for George.

At the end of the morning I found Fred once again - in deep contemplation beside the new engine house at Nelson Yard.

He was sporting this shirt given to him by our good friend, Paul.

And...here is a jersey I now own that belonged to our former Governor General, David Johnston.

David Johnston was our 28th GG and whenever he attended special sporting events he would be given a jersey from the home team be it football, soccer, hockey, baseball or any other sport that has jerseys and the number on all of these clothing items was always #28 for good reason!  David Johnston was presented this jersey when he attended a football game at Ivor Wynne Stadium where the Hamilton Tiger Cats play.

Well, that's all for now.

Thank you for checking in on the happenings midweek between our operating sessions when the 'Worday Wednesday' crew gathers to do their thing!

On behalf of Parson Fred...

We are the OVGRS of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada